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Honeybee swarm creates spectacle, disrupts traffic in downtown Gretna

Honeybee swarm removed from GretnaA honeybee swarm formed a cluster about the size of a basketball in a bush outside the Jefferson Parish Government Center in Gretna Wednesday morning, leading parish officials to rope off an area to keep unsuspecting pedestrians away, and to close 2nd Street at Derbigny Street for about an hour while Jannett Cancella of Destrehan, co-owner of Bees are My Business, removed the insects. She used a customized vacuum to suck the bees out of the bush and into a cage. She keeps bees on acreage she owns in Paradis, from where she sells the honey. Cancella said the swarm, of as many as 7,000 bees, was protecting its queen, which likely landed in the bush while in route to establish a nest somewhere else. (Paul Purpura, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

A honeybee swarm formed a cluster about the size of a basketball in a red-tip shrub outside the Jefferson Parish Government Center in Gretna on Wednesday morning. Parish employees roped off an area to keep unsuspecting pedestrians away and closed 2nd Street at Derbigny Street for about an hour, while a bee removal expert did her work.

Two people were stung, including Jannett Cancella of Destrehan, co-owner of Bees Are My Business. Parish officials had summoned her after learning of the swarm at about 8 a.m.

"Oh, she's going to swell," Cancella said of the wound just under her right eyebrow. She appeared unfazed but donned a hat with netting to protect only her face and neck.

Using a customized vacuum and a cage, Cancella gently sucked up the swarm. She planned to release the bees later at her bee farm in Paradis, on St. Charles Parish's west bank. She builds hives at her 5-3/4-acre site and sells the honey as an extension of the business that she and her husband, A.J. Cancella, opened 14 years ago.

Cancella said the swarm was following its queen as she was en route elsewhere to create a hive. The queen probably used the bush as a rest stop and would not have created the hive in the bush, Cancella said.

"They're protecting her and covering her," Cancella said of the ball of bees. A honeybee typically lives about 42 days, and these were about midway through their lives, Cancella said. Queen bees, however, live three to five years and lay thousands upon thousands of eggs.

Honeybee removal expert gets a stingerJannett Cancella, co-ower of Bees Are My Business in Destrehan, removes a honeybee swarm that took up residence in a red-tip shrub across Derbigny Street from the Jefferson Parish Government Center in Gretna on Wednesday. The parish summonsed her to remove the hive after learning of it about 8 a.m., Wednesday. Undaunted, Cancella went straight to work with her vacuum system through which she sucked the bees into a customized cage for transport to her bee farm in Paradis, on St. Charles Parish's west bank. She was stung only once, after which she donned a protective hat. (Paul Purpura, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

In this case, a hive elsewhere probably split up, and the queen followed scouts in a quest for a place to create a new hive, she said. "They will find a place," Cancella said.

After she removed most of the swarm, stragglers kept flying at the shrub. "They're looking for her and can't find her," she said. She left some of the stragglers behind, and used a "secret" powder she concocted to disperse them.

Cancella said it is swarm season, so clusters such as this one aren't uncommon. She removed a swarm from inside a fifth floor wall in the parish government building in Gretna, and she said she was heading to her next call, at West Jefferson High School in Harvey, to remove a swarm from a wall in the principal's office.

She said she and her daughter, Kayce Ballance, a "bee wrangler," respond to calls from people seeking to have swarms removed from their homes and businesses. Pesticide companies that don't kill bees also use her services, she said.

Although pesticides are believed to be killing the honeybee population, Cancella said she hasn't seen her bee population in Paradis suffer. The exception was from the flooding during Hurricane Isaac in 2012, which killed many of the insects.

She warned, however, that pesticides do affect the bees, if used improperly. She said, for instance, that people should not spray pesticides when plants or trees are in bloom. Bees pick up pollen from the blossoms and take it to their hive. "The pesticides then will destroy the hive," Cancella said.